GOP operative drops sexual assault suit against CPAC’s Matt Schlapp

The GOP strategist who sued Conservative Political Motion Convention Chair Matt Schlapp and his spouse Mercedes Schlapp over allegations of sexual assault and defamation has dropped his lawsuits towards the couple, attorneys for each side confirmed to The Hill. 

“I’m discontinuing all of my lawsuits. The claims made in my lawsuits had been the results of a whole misunderstanding, and I remorse that the lawsuit brought about ache to the Schlapp household,” Carlton Huffman wrote in an announcement supplied by Schlapp’s spokesperson Tuesday. 

Huffman, a former employees member of Republican Herschel Walker’s Georgia Senate marketing campaign, sued the Schlapps originally of final 12 months, alleging Matt Schlapp was “aggressively fondling” his groin whereas the 2 drove again from a restaurant to a lodge throughout a marketing campaign cease in October 2022.

POLITICO was the primary to report the fits’ dismissals.

The go well with requested $9.4 million from the couple for a depend of sexual battery towards Matt Schlapp, a depend of defamation towards the couple, and a depend of conspiracy towards the pair for what Huffman stated had been makes an attempt to defame him.

Matt Schlapp can also be the chair of the American Conservative Union (ACU). Mercedes Schlapp is a former Trump administration official.

Requested to verify Huffman’s assertion, his lawyer, Timothy Hyland, instructed The Hill, “The events have resolved their variations.” 

“The Schlapps have suggested that the statements made about me had been the results of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable. Neither the Schlapps nor the ACU paid me something to dismiss my claims towards them,” Huffman stated.

Matt Schlapp and his lawyer, Ben Chew, took a swipe at what Chew referred to as a “sure agenda-driven media” that sought to hurt conservatives. 

“In my 35 years of practising legislation, I’ve by no means seen such a case of malicious piling on by non-parties akin to that which Matt and Mercedes Schlapp suffered,” Chew wrote in an announcement to The Hill. “We imagine it ran the gamut from selective leaks from non-party insiders with chips on their shoulders to others who didn’t show worthy of the Schlapps’ belief, and naturally, sure agenda-driven media who appeared all too wanting to destroy conservatives just like the Schlapps.”

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Matt Schlapp stated his household was “attacked” by “a left-wing media” however has emerged “stronger.”

“More and more, they [the left] have gained a stranglehold on the mainstream media, social media, and the authorized system which they use to attempt to silence, disgrace and bankrupt People who’ve opposite, but appropriate viewpoints,” Schlapp wrote in an announcement. “Going ahead, our eyes are large open, we perceive the wrestle higher and we discovered we should stand our floor and combat or else the haters on the left will destroy each conservative and finally our nation.”

Huffman’s lawyer additionally confirmed his shopper additionally dropped a defamation case towards Republican activist Caroline Wren, who was accused of attacking Huffman on social media after the allegations towards Schlapp had been publicized.  

Story up to date at 11:05 p.m.